North, Caribbean, Companies, Way

Caribbean represents the middle way for North Americans

27 Aug 2005 | (News)

While many North American companies have experienced success with outsourcing to places such as India and the Philippines and have stuck with it; others, stung by poor service and bad publicity, have pulled their operations back to North America. Some companies have found a "third way," combining their onshore, offshore and nearshore business into a workable solution.

The concept of "nearshore" has emerged as a preferred practice for some companies. For American companies, Canada is a popular choice, and so has the Caribbean, especially Jamaica and Barbados. While the costs are slightly higher than India, the Caribbean companies are promoting themselves with higher customer service.

With approximately eighty percent of contracts driving the explosive growth in Caribbean – nearshore call center outsourcing coming from Fortune 500 companies and large U.S corporations, American companies have become both catalyst and partners in more than doubling the region’s call center agent positions from just over 11,000 in 2002 to almost 25,000 as of the end of 2004, reports the Zagada Institute in its updated “Caribbean Call Center Report 2005: A CRM Market”.

While agent positions have doubled, the report also shows that the number of contact centers operating in the region has also grown impressively, almost doubling from 48 to 85 call centers within the same 24 months time period studied. The report indicates that contact centers operating in the region are reporting higher, “stick ratios”, which suggests an increasing level of U.S customer satisfaction with agents capabilities resulting in extended and expanded contract assignments.

The report’s findings demonstrates that U.S corporate buyers are increasingly finding sustained value by including Caribbean nearshore contact center operators as part of their global sourcing selection mix inclusive of Asia, Europe, Canada, and Latin America. The report’s finding indicates parallel growth levels in both the Spanish and English markets, reflecting the growing success that both English and bi-lingual operators are having with U.S multinationals outsourcing projects into the region.

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